I imagine a lot of you enjoy/enjoyed some Mario Kart games in the past, so I figured I might as well share the expansive Mario Kart scene with you all.

The goal of almost all of these projects is to add custom tracks and characters to the games. Some also add/port new gamemodes. Many tracks are ports/recreations from previous/future games as well as original creations. All 4 of these modifications also support online play through various nintendo online service replacement projects (details on how to play found on each project's site/within the readme in the patch download).

Projects:

• CTGP Nitro: A Mario Kart DS romhack
• CTGPT-7: A mario Kart 7 (3DS) romhack
• Wimms Mario Kart Fun RMCx51: A massive Mario Kart Wii romhack currently boasting 449 custom tracks
• CTGP Revolution: Another huge Mario Kart Wii romhack featuring roughly 200 new tracks

Gameplay videos:

• CTGP Nitro
• CTGP-7
• Wiims Mario Kart Fun
• CTGP Revolution

Recommended Emulators:

• MelonDS - DS
• Citra (PabloMK7 fork) - 3DS
• Dolphin - Wii

For install/patch instructions for each game check the readme/install instructions on each project site, but if you're confused feel free to ask here and I'll be glad to help.

They finally got the jetpack strength and skiing velocity inheritance right per my tastes. I've only ever played Tribes: Ascend so apologies to the older games fans as I'm not sure if this will suit your liking.

Game still needs some work, but the core seems to be there now and 12v12 feels like a good size for the maps that currently exist in-game.

To answer questions people who played previous tribes may immediately have:

• game visually is like an updated Ascend
• bases have generators now
• base turrets still aren't as opressive as I wish they were
• competitive mode is 7v7 in this test (up from 5v5- I still play casual 12v12 because I think it's more fun)
• confirmed 32v32 private servers
• still only testing CTF
• vehicles are not in the game yet

Anyone can request access to the play test on steam (Tribes 3: Rivals) so if you have a passing interest give it a shot.

I get a call from a relative about their firestick being stuck at the Amazon logo so I start looking into it. This person is relatively decent when it comes to not bricking their devices (they won't just shut the power off during an update for example) so I start operating off of the expectation that this is probably a reasonable problem.

The usual unplug it, wait a bit, plug it back in fails. Try using a different power brick to power the devices fails. Try using the USB power on the back of the TV instead of a powerbrick fails. Stuck on boot logo still- ok, time to start considering researching software-related solutions on my end. I initially go to "let's just factory reset this thing" because it seems like a reasonable step at this point and should solve the problems (or definitively tell me that the unit is broken).

In attempting to fulfill the quest of factory resetting I find out:

1. Firesticks have no physical reset button the devices. The only possible input is a microusb power port (more on this in a bit)
2. Because of this design choice, the factory reset process is dependent upon a button combination on the remote from within a functional device
3. When stuck in the boot sequence, the remote isn't paired so the ability to send that button combination isn't possible

I had no idea prior to today how absurdly irritating the combination of poor hardware design choice (no physical reset button) and downstream terrible software design (needing the signal for reset requiring a failing device to not be failing) could ever be seen as a reasonable product spec.

I'm already irritated by this combination, but fuck it, let's continue on and see if, like with the Kindle products, there's some tomfuckery where if you know certain arcane sequences of settings, menus, and inputs you can get into a vendor mode/debug/etc type mode to operate further.

Turns out, the firestick can be sent a signal using alt +prntscrn + i from a keyboard during boot. Awesome, now if only the physical hardware had a place for a USB plug for this! I know the device has to be powered, so some adapter daisy-chain is going to have to be used in order to provide that as well as enable me to plug in a usb device.

This wonderful abomination is used by pirates (one of hellworld's few remaining heroes) to load USB media off of flash drives to play through apps on the device. They're ~7 imperial war bucks and useless beyond this narrow case, but hey at least it helps me help this working-class person who is probably gonna use it to watch someone on MSNBC say "The walls are finally closing in on Trump and maybe we shouldn't be so pessimistic about the capitalist hellscape that is destroying the planet in new and exciting ways via climate change but also no one should do anything because that would be violence which is bad."

Don't go down that line of thought right now- stay focused on the goal.

Device arrives, plugged into the microusb slot, keyboard plugged into the adapter that provides the functionality amazon probably intentionally didn't include to either make the average "sane" person say:

"This device is irreparably broken; I should buy a new one." or "This probably isn't worth going through the trouble of fixing; I should buy a new one."

Since I've already been driven to a spite-capitalism-in-all-ways-filled existence by living in this world, I fortunately don't have the capability to allow planned obsolescence device get the best of me and hold down alt, prntscrn, and spam i during the sequence... nothing.

Second attempt, alt + prntscrn + i, startup boot sequence is interrupted and I make it into profile selection. The device works again.

It infuriates me that this device exists in a way where this is the route that has to be taken to even get a chance to factory reset it. The idea that locking this standard (and often necessary procedure to prevent e-waste) device option behind remote control functionality that is beyond the point of failure (and fairly common per searches) was what someone decided to be a reasonable and shippable choice when that route is used as a last resort to fix broken functionality is beyond comprehension. It's a decision that can only be reasonably made in hellworld where disposable commodities are a society's pinnacle of innovation.

What irritates me the most is knowing that some shithead team of McKinsey ghouls were probably paid an absurd amount of money to create a slideshow with a chart (exclusively featured in the executive summary) with a little star at the forecasted profit-maximizing point showing that removing repair functionality will increase electronic waste, and profits, to maximally-desired levels.

Because who gives a fuck if we destroy the world, profit has a direct positive correlation with Misery Index, this strategy was/is economically sound and we're all the worse for it.

1. Death to Amazon

2. Death to the Fire Stick product line

3. Death to McKinsey first and foremost and all the other management consulting firms after it

4. Death to America

I cheered for Germany against the USA in the FIBA semifinals today and it was great. Final score 113-111 Germany.

Serbia-Germany finals incoming.

vs for the 3rd-place game and the second straight FIBA in a row where the US might miss a spot on the podium.

Things to get out of the way:

• I know a U.S. president can't pardon state level crimes
• I know the Georgia governor can't pardon state crimes in Georgia

In Georgia a council, appointed by the governor, has the pardon power in the state after it was stripped from GA governors because of corruption in the past.

As far as I'm aware (per coverage of things tonight), that council is all Republican and only has loose self-imposed guidelines/norms about the process by which a person can apply for a pardon.

Why do liberals think this is a slam dunk when that council can seemingly at any time change these rules to the extent of even giving a preemptive pardon? The governor can't replace these people instantly as they're on some x year term scheme.

Is this just more hopeful "the walls are closing in" or am I missing something here?

Here are some educational resources/explanations for the games community about emulation and other game-related tools.

Note: Check my top-level replies in this thread as I ran out of text in the post

[Informational Resources]

Reddit's ROM Megathread - Unaffiliated with this site

Emulation Wiki

[Emulation as a field]

Emulation is the process of re-implementing the functionality of something (hardware and/or software) in a separate software environment. You're probably most most familiar in the term as it relates to game system emulation- like the Dolphin Wii and Gamecube emulator, but it's actually much broader than that.

While emulation does cover physical systems, it can also cover things that strictly exist as software. If you've ever played on WoW or any other MMO private servers, the actual underlying software that was being run was likely a server emulator (or in rare cases the actual official server software itself may have leaked or released).

These server emulators are created by analyzing the network information exchange (packets) sent from the game client to the server and those received by the client from the server. A painstaking and brutal process of analyzing these packets allows server reverse-engineering projects to then re-implement the functionality of the official servers, and then we can point the game client towards our reverse-engineered private server (that speaks the exact same "language" as the official servers). This then allows the private servers to provide additional or changed functionality (for example, more exp per quest) which allows a much more customizable experience.

Emulation can also be used to re-implement vendor solutions like the Steam API which provides various utilities like DRM (which the emulator could choose to ignore). A great example of an emulator in this regard is the Goldberg Emulator.

Let's say you've acquired (through legal purchase only of course) the clean steam files for a game and want to run it offline. Normally you wouldn't be able to because the steamworks DRM check wouldn't be able to authenticate against the official steam servers. If we instead replace the steam_api.dll (this could also be named steam_api64.dll depending on the game) with the one provided by the Goldberg Emulator, when the game makes the check for the steamworks drm authentication status, the Goldberg Emulator's implementation of steam_api.dll will simply return true and let us play our game offline. The game itself just knows that it asked for a DRM verification check to a service, and the Goldberg variant of steam_api.dll looks (to the game) exactly like the "real" version, except that it always returns that the steamworks DRM has been verified.

Refer to the readme within the Goldberg project for more information about what to do with specific games. Also take note that this only works with games that only use steamworks drm (most of them) and games using other/multiple DRM solutions won't work with this method only for offline play.

[Console Emulators]

All of the emulators listed below are my personal per-console pick. Each is at least in the recommended section of a great general emulation resource, the Emulation Wiki

Game Platform | Emulator Name | Emulation Platform | Comments

Nintendo Consoles

NES | Ares | Windows/Linux/Mac

SNES | Ares | Windows/Linux/Mac

SNES | bsnes-hd | Windows/Linux/Mac | Widescreen modifications for some SNES games

N64 | Simple64 | Windows/Linux | N64 emulation has a lot of viable candidate emulators, check the page here

GC | Dolphin | Windows/Linux/Mac/Android

Wii | Dolphin | Windows/Linux/Mac/Android

Wii U | Cemu | Windows/Linux

Switch | Ryujinx | Windows/Linux/Mac | Has a free multiplayer-enabled build called LDN 3.1.3 on Patreon

Switch | Yuzu | Windows/Linux/Android | Killed by Nintendo 3/4/2024

Nintendo Handhelds

GB/C | mGBA | Windows/Linux/Mac

GBA | mGBA | Windows/Linux/Mac

DS | MelonDS | Windows/Linux/Mac/Android

3DS | Citra (PabloMK7 Fork) | Windows/Linux/Mac/Android | Fork by longtime former contributor of Citra receiving additional development from GPUCode (another longtime contributor)

Sony Consoles

Playstation | DuckStation | Windows/Linux/Mac/Android

Playstation 2 | PCSX2 | Windows/Linux/Mac

Playstation 3 | RPCS3 | Windows/Linux/Mac

Sony Handhelds

PSP | PPSSPP | Windows/Linux/Mac/Android

PSVita | Vita3K | Windows/Linux/Mac

Sega Consoles

Sega Master System | Ares | Windows/Linux/Mac

Genesis | Ares | Windows/Linux/Mac

Saturn | Mednafen | Windows/Linux

Dreamcast | Flycast | Windows/Linux/Mac/Android

Microsoft Consoles

Xbox | Xemu | Windows/Linux/Mac

Xbox 360 | Xenia | Windows

Apple Phones

iOS 2.x | TouchHLE | Windows/Mac/Android

[Graphics Packs]

A lot of emulators have texture replacement capabilities built into them. What this means is that users can manually and/or AI upscale textures from the game into higher resolution or outright replace them with other textures. There aren't currently (that I'm aware of) area that have consolidated links to these things, so you'll unfortunately have to search individual project forums and look for texture or graphic packs links.

Some known graphics packs repositories:

Dolphin Forums

Citra Forums Killed by Nintendo 3/4/2024; waiting for the dust to settle for recommendations

[Graphics API Translation Layers]

Sometimes there are scenarios where a game may only use DirectX to draw it's rendered graphics to screen and we may not want this. This could be for performance reasons (maybe the Vulkan graphics api has better performance, maybe DirectX isn't available on our OS, or maybe the DirectX version is really old and not properly supported by our OS/GPU/Driver combination). In these instances we can use translations layers to translate DirectX graphics api calls into Vulkan calls using utilities like DXVK . Explaining which files to copy over depends on a per-DirectX version basis, so you'll have to use a combination of the PCGamingWiki and DXVK documentation to figure out which files to replace.

[Graphics Post-Processing]

With a utility called ReShade we're able to inject various post-processing effects into the final stage of the graphic rendering pipelines of games. This allows you to adjust color curves, inject path-traced global illumination (a method like ray-tracing), and add a bunch of other effects to DirectX9/11/12/Vulkan games.